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Public Policy Notes

South Dakota Women are Doing it for Themselves
On Monday, May 30, the South Dakota Campaign for Healthy Families delivered a petition to the South Dakota Secretary of State calling for a repeal of South Dakota’s abortion ban. The 38,000 signatures far exceed the number required to prevent the ban from taking effect on July 1 and to place it on the ballot for a vote by the people in November. Political analysts believe this legislation was drafted with the intent of challenging Roe v. Wade, and bringing it before a U.S. Supreme Court potentially more inclined to overturn the landmark decision since the retirement on Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and the confirmations of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. If the ban is successfully overturned by the voters, the law will not go to the Supreme Court at all. It will be very important to get women to the polls this November in South Dakota. AAUW has recently released Woman-to-Woman Voter Turnout: A Manual for Community-Based Campaigns to Mobilize Women to Vote, an in-depth resource for planning a campaign to turnout drop-off women voters. For more information, including a free, members-only PDF copy of Woman-to-Woman Voter Turnout, visit www.aauw.org/onevote. For South Dakota, or any other state where issues affecting women will be decided this fall (and really, that’s all of them, folks), campaigning to turnout more women to vote could make the critical difference.. For South Dakota, or any other state where issues affecting women will be decided this fall (and really, that’s all of them, folks), campaigning to turnout more women to vote could make the critical difference

Sex Discrimination in U.S. Workplaces?
The National Organization for Women Foundation has prepared a report on widespread sex-based employment discrimination in the U.S. to be submitted in early June to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. The report will join others that evaluate U.S. efforts to conform to provisions of a human rights treaty, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), ratified by the U.S. in 1992. By ratifying the treaty the U.S. agreed to bring its laws and policies in line with the treaty’s numerous provisions concerning equal treatment for women and men. The ICCPR contains very clear sex equality provisions – stronger than any existing provisions in the U.S. Constitution or federal law. For more information, read the announcement from the NOW Foundation. An AAUW position paper and AAUW Educational Foundation research are repeatedly cited in this report.

National Breast Cancer Coalition Golden Boob Award
The National Breast Cancer Coalition will be giving a Golden Boob Award, or Boobie, to a business or organization that exploits breast cancer to sell merchandise, or to push their own political agenda.  One of the nominees for the “Boobie” is the “Abortion Breast Cancer Coalition,” which has been claiming that abortion leads to breast cancer (of course, there is no such link).  You can make a nomination or cast your vote by visiting www.GoldenBoob.org.